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May 2, 2018

China Tensions Push India Into World's Top Five Defense Spenders

India has joined the U.S. and China as one of the world’s five biggest
military spenders, reflecting geopolitical tensions as well as the
country’s reliance on imported weapons and sprawling personnel costs.

New
Delhi’s defense spending rose by 5.5 percent to $63.9 billion in 2017
and has now passed France, the Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute said in a report released Wednesday.

Worldwide military
spending rose marginally last year to $1.73 trillion, or roughly 2.2
percent of global gross domestic product, the group said. The list of
the world’s biggest military spenders has remained consistent in recent
years, dominated by the U.S. and China, which spent $610 billion and
$228 billion respectively, according to SIPRI, which researches global
arms spending.

However, the group said the balance of military
spending is "clearly shifting" toward Asia, Oceania and the Middle East,
driven largely by spending increases in China, India and Saudi Arabia.

Arms Race ::

India is now among the top five countries spending the most on defense in 2017.

China spends far more on its military than any other power in Asia.

Beijing’s
share of worldwide military expenditure rose to 13 percent in 2017 from
just 5.8 percent in 2008, according to SIPRI. The Chinese government
has increased spending 8.5 percent per year between 2007 and 2016 and
its leaders "seem committed to increases in defense spending for the
foreseeable future, even as China’s economic growth slows," according to
a U.S. Department of Defense report on China’s military.

In
India’s case, however, increased spending doesn’t mean the armed forces
are deploying state-of-the-art equipment. The rise in defense spending
mostly goes toward salaries and pensions for roughly 1.4 million serving
personnel and more than 2 million veterans, said Laxman Kumar Behera, a
research fellow with New Delhi’s Institute for Defence Studies and
Analyses.

"Because so much money is consumed by manpower costs, there isn’t enough left over to buy equipment," Behera said.

India’s
own army echoes that sentiment. Vice-Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen.
Sarath Chand told a parliamentary committee in March the current budget
barely accounts for inflation and tax payments. Only 14 percent goes
toward military modernization compared to 63 percent for salaries, Chand
said.

Paycheck Problems ::

India's armed forces spend so much on salaries there's not enough for buying new equipment.

SIPRI
previously ranked India as the world’s largest arms importer because
its domestic defense manufacturing industry remains curtailed by red
tape, a reliance on state-owned defense companies and procurement
delays.

Faced with geopolitical threats from Pakistan and China,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to boost domestic defense
production with his ‘Make in India’ program.

Made in India?

Since Modi took power in 2014, defense procurement from Indian vendors actually declined.

Yet
Ministry of Defense data released in response to a parliamentary
question show that procurement from Indian vendors has declined since
2014 -- when Modi came to power -- while procurement from foreign
vendors increased slightly. Overall equipment procurement also dipped,
the data show.